Research Distinctions & MLA Citation RefresherTHE NO NONSENSE, STRAIGHT FORWARD, SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO FIGURE STUFF OUT YOURSELF REVIEW

Popular Sources

USA Today, New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Newsweek, Time, Website Articles, etc.General AudienceLess strict restrictions on voiceOften utilize national pollsBroad overviews with limited (or

little) in-depth analysis

Scholarly Sources

Field specific “magazines” that are published usually quarterly. Each issue features a number of essays.CCCC, JAC, College English, Rhetoric

Review, Kairos (in my field)

“Experts” in the field of study review and approve the article before it can be published

In depth exploration, analysis, and argumentation

Scholarly Sources

Found through library databases (or physical copies usually deep in library basements)

Not automatically reliable; however, you can rest assured the sources have been given a stamp of approval by someone knowledgeable.

Not automatically factual; usually offering an interpretation of data or an argument that is still ultimately subjective (and open to critique)

What This is Not

I will not be covering the exact Works Cited page format for every type of entry you may do.

In other words, go look them up and follow the examples: it’s what we all do.

Good Resources

Purdue OWL

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

Cornell University Library

http://www.library.cornell.edu/resrch/citmanage/mla

Purchases an official MLA handbook from any of the campus bookstores.

On Citation Generators

Many resources exist to generate citations for you if you just plug in the information

Word has this built in

Websites like Son of Citation Machine

I am not opposed to you using them. But they can be wrong or add info into the citation not needed

It’s worth knowing the formats to essentially check if the generator result is correct

Publication Info

Author

Title of book or article

Title of Journal or magazine that article is in

Publishing City

Name of Publisher

Volume and Issue # (for journals)

Year of publication

Page numbers of article

Info Not Needed

Database you got the article from (i.e. Academic Search Premiere)

Access date when the source is from the library database

Access date only need for a website citation

P. – as in (p. 35) for page 35

Often put before page numbers. Don’t.

The total number of pages

Databases often give you this like: 33pp

“Volume” or “Issue”

The words themselves not needed. Just require the number.

What is Citation?

Citation is a highly standardized and formatted way of showing where your research came from.

In theory, it allows readers of your paper to go find those sources and learn more for themselves.

It also protects you from charges of plagiarism, which sadly, are rampant at your level of University education.

Kinds

There are many different kinds of citation

MLA

APA

Chicago

And more

They vary slightly in formatting requirements

They are discipline significant

APA

The sciences tend to use APA.

There is method to the madness

An APA in-text citation has to include the year of the reference (MLA does not)

Timeliness and currency of info in science is often more important than it is in the Humanities

Basic Components

In-text citations

This is parenthetical information included in the text of your actual essay that lead the reader to the full reference on the Works Cited page.

Works Cited Page

This is the final page of the essay (a separate page) that lists the full publication information of the resource used and quoted in the paper.

Titles

Books, films, plays, and other large form pieces are placed in italics. From Inquiry to Academic Writing

Hamlet

Dateline NBC

“Articles, short poems, individual television episodes, etc. are placed in quotation marks.” “White Privilege: The Invisible Knapsack”

“The Road Not Taken”

Capitalize Every Word Except Articles and Minor Prepositions (unless they are the first word)

Sample works cited

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/12/

Alphabetical by author

Alphabetical by title when author is unavailable

Indentation of entries that go long

“Works Cited” centered at top of page

Book

Leroux, Marcel. Global Warming: Myth Or Reality?: The Erring Ways of Climatology. New

York: Springer, 2005. Print.

Last name of author first

Italicized book title

Publication city: Publisher Name

Print at end (this is new as of 2009)

Journal article

Nordhaus, William D. "After Kyoto: Alternative Mechanisms to Control

Global Warming." American Economic Review 96.2 (2006): 31-34. Print.

Last name, first name of author

Quotations around article title

Italicized title of journal it’s in

Volume 92, issue 2 (just numbers with a period)

Page numbers inside journal

Website

Shulte, Bret. "Putting a Price on Pollution." Usnews.com. 6 May 2007. Web. 24 May 2009.

Author, if known

Title of Individual Page

Title of Master Site (in italics)

Date of Posting/Last Update (day, month, year) Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

URL no longer needed as of 2009

Date of Access

Web Versus Print

This is confusing for many students.

Though you might get an article via the web through the library database, it’s still a print source.

The journal exists in print.

Only use the word “Web” in the citation if the resource is ONLY a web site.

Common Variations

More than one source by same author.

Insert - - -. For author name of subsequent entries.

Leroux, Marcel. Economic Theory and Global Warming. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003. Print.

- - -. Global Warming: Myth Or Reality?: The Erring Ways of Climatology. New York: Springer, 2005. Print.

Alphabetize by Article or Book Title

Common variations

No author

Start with title

"Blueprint Lays Out Clear Path for Climate Action." Environmental Defense

Fund. Environmental Defense Fund. 8 May 2007. Web. 24 May 2009.

A whole lot of authors

If three names then list them all Note: second and third names are first name first

If more than three, list first name and insert et al Latin for “and others”

Smith, Jim, Bob Jones, and Carrie Elwood. “This is Our Article.” Generic

Journal 45.4 (2012): 45-67. Print.

Smith, Jim, et al. “Jim Wrote This With 10 Other People.” Generic Journal 45.4 (2012): 45-67. Print.

In-text citations

Come inside the text of the essay immediately following:

Paraphrases

Quotes

They lead the reader to the correct entry on the Works Cited page.

Quotes

According to some, dreams express "profound aspects of personality" (Foulkes 184), though others disagree.

According to Foulkes's study, dreams may express "profound aspects of personality" (184).

Punctuation comes out of quoted material and is moved after the parenthetical.

Author’s name needed only if not signaled in the actual sentence.

Sentence must read grammatically correct as if the quotation wasn’t there.

Attribution

There is some debate, but quote attribution sounds better (to me) before the quote.

“It sounds better to attribute a quote before the actual quote” (45), according to Pepper.

According to Pepper, “It sounds better to attribute a quote before the actual quote” (45).

Quotes Without Author

The author concludes, "Of all the things that happened there, that's all I remember" (“Blueprint”).

"Blueprint Lays Out Clear Path for Climate Action." Environmental Defense Fund. 8 May 2007.

Web. 24 May 2009.

Use an abbreviated form of the article title.

Website In-text Citations

Websites have on true pages, so you never need a page number.

Old forms of MLA (and maybe APA still) would require you to cite the paragraph number of the quote on a webpage. This is dumb.

Because nobody counts paragraphs. They do a control-F search for the phrase and the browser takes them straight to it.

Therefore

An in-text citation for a website quote may not be needed at all if the author is mentioned in the sentence.

Smith says, “MLA citation is hard.”

Since there’s no parenthetical citation, I can assume this is a website.

Remember, if you don’t make the author clear in the sentence context, then their name should be in the citation but with no page number.

Continued Reference

Unless you switch sources, MLA allows the reader to assume that the parenthetical is the same source as the one before it. Hence, no need for the author’s name each time.

The author states, “something interesting” (Smith 34). Now I say something else. And continue. I’m about to quote Smith again. “I am quoting Smith” (67). Smith’s name doesn’t have to go into the parenthetical because I’m allowed to assume the citation is from the same place as before.

Quoting Someone Your Article’s Author Quotes

Original Source Written by Johnson on page 124 of his Article

In reference to toasters, Robert Smith suggests, “They are very useful” (45).

You Quoting Smith out of Johnson

Johnson quotes Robert Smith when he mentions toasters “are very useful” (qtd in Johnson 124).

Make it clear who quoted originally: Johnson

Make it clear who is being quoted: Smith

Use the page number from your article (124) not the (45) from the Smith article you never saw

Block quotes

Use a block quote when the quoted material exceeds four lines of text in your essay.Indent the quote away from left

margin and left justify all the linesRemove quotation marksNo end punctuation needed but

citation is

Block Quotes

Omitted words

In an essay on urban legends, Jan Harold Brunvand notes that "some individuals make a point of learning every recent rumor or tale . . . and in a short time a lively exchange of details occurs" (78).

Show you removed words from the original quote with a . . .

Adding words

Jan Harold Brunvand, in an essay on urban legends, states: "some individuals [who retell urban legends] make a point of learning every rumor or tale" (78).

Place added words in brackets to show that they are yours

Done to provide context

Paraphrase

These are your own words, but the material or information came from a resource

Special piece of knowledge

Statistic

Barker reports that 84% of students plagiarized at least one paper in high school (56).

Format is essential to the same as for a quote, just without the quotation marks

Period still comes after parenthetical